It's the third time in seven races that rain has disrupted the start of a Sprint Cup race this season. The Daytona 500 finished shortly before midnight after a midrace rain delay of more than six hours. Last month at Bristol Motor Speedway, the checkered flag fell shortly before 9:30 p.m. after two delays that totaled nearly five hours.

NASCAR tried to dry the Texas track for several hours after a drenching rain that began in the morning. Using its new Air Titan system that relies on compressed air and vacuums, it was expected to take less than two hours to dry the 1.5-mile oval.

But cold temperatures and track weepers (in which water bubbles to the surface of a saturated asphalt) made it take much longer to dry, and efforts were abandoned after a shower hit at 7:15 p.m. ET, about four hours after the scheduled start.

Tony Stewart, who missed 15 races last season with a broken right leg, will start on the pole position Monday for the first time since September 2012 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

This will mark the first Sprint Cup race run on a Monday since the 2012 Daytona 500. It's the first race postponed at Texas since April 2010 when Denny Hamlin won.

The defending winner of this event is Kyle Busch, who will start 29th. Six-time series champion Jimmie Johnson, who dominated in a November victory at Texas, will start 16th.